Born to reign: King Charles III through the years

The first child of the late Queen and former Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, Charles was born at Buckingham Palace on 14 November 1948. He became heir apparent at the age of three, when his mother became Queen.

In a recent interview with the Canadian channel CBC News, Anne spoke about the role and duties of her brother saying: “Well, you know what you’re getting because he’s been practising for a bit, and I don’t think he will change. You know, he is committed to his own level of service and that will remain true.”

Educated at Hill House in West London, Cheam Preparatory School in Berkshire and Gordonstoun in northeast Scotland, Charles became the Prince of Wales at the age of 20 at an investiture ceremony at Caerfarnon Castle in July 1969 presided over by the Queen.

As well as a naval career, and his official and ceremonial duties, Charles has helped establish more than 20 charities over 40 years, including The Prince’s Trust, The Prince’s Foundation and The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund.

Charles married Lady Diana Spencer on 29 July 1981 at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. The event marked a “high point in the popularity of the Royal Family” and was watched by a global audience of 750 million people in 74 countries, said the BBC. The couple had two sons: Prince William, born on 21 June 1982; and Prince Harry, born on 15 September 1984. But his marriage to Diana was dissolved on 28 August 1996 and Diana died in a car crash in Paris 12 months later.

Having visited Papua New Guinea in 1975 to mark its independence from Australia, Charles returned in 2012 with his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. Charles spoke in the local language called Tok Pisin as he introduced himself as the “nambawan pikinini bilong Misis Kwin” – which translates as the number one child belonging to Mrs Queen.

“More than 30 years after their romance first began,” said the BBC, Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles were married in April 2005. After a civil ceremony at the Guildhall, Windsor, there was a service of blessing at Windsor Castle, led by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

King Charles’s visit to Germany in March was a “resounding success”, according to the i news policy editor Jane Merrick, reinforcing his reputation as a diplomat. In 2019, the then Prince of Wales, known for his strong stance on climate change, needed those skills when he met US President Donald Trump, known for his “contradictory – and confusing” views on the subject.

When the Queen died last September, the throne passed immediately and without ceremony to her eldest son, Charles. In a televised speech after her death, he pledged, “throughout the remaining time God grants me, to uphold the Constitutional principles at the heart of our nation”.

This morning, eight months later, King Charles III was crowned in Westminster Abbey. The ceremony combined rituals that date back 1,000 years, including the anointing with holy oil, with elements created anew for the first 21st-century coronation.